Where Does WKY "Start"?

[BIG BLACK JACK]

I live in Bowling Green, home of Western Kentucky University. Most people around the area, including the local news stations, refer to the area as "South Central" Kentucky. But judging by the Central KY Pickem, which includes the Lexington area, it would seem that "South Central" Kentucky is really Columiba/Jamestown/Somerset.

 

So, with all that stated, is Bowling Green really WKY? Is Owensboro WKY? What about Madisonville, Greenville, Hoptown?

 

Where is this imaginary line that defines WKY as WKY, EKY as EKY, so on and so forth.

[woodsrider]

Owensboro is on the eastern boarder of WKY and BG is on the western board of CKY. I believe that is what the out come would be if you divided KY into 3 equal pieces...WKY/CKY/EKT.

[Jumper_Dad]

Owensboro is on the eastern boarder of WKY and BG is on the western board of CKY. I believe that is what the out come would be if you divided KY into 3 equal pieces...WKY/CKY/EKT.

 

Sounds about right to me!

[plantmanky]

Richmond, lol.

[PurplePride92]

EKU is in Richmond and Richmond is not Eastern Kentucky at all. Both WKU and EKU homes of BG and Richmond are on I-65 and I-75 and it makes more sense for those two schools to be located where they are even though they aren't geographically accurate.

[Hangman]

Considering I'm from Elkhorn City, I'd say around Floyd County. :lol2:

[BigVMan23]

Its so subjective...but this is where I would 'draw the line" as it were. Got to the very north-eastern tip of Hancock county, and draw a line straight down. Anything west of that would be considered WKY to me. In this completely subjective "border" BG would not be considered western KY. Owensboro would. Russellville would. E'town and Leitchfield would not, but many people consider them to be wky. I never have. Here is a map with a red line I put on it showing what I roughly consider WKY.

 

[woodsrider]

Here is KY divided into 3 equal pieces. This is going from the western most boarder to the eastern most boarder. Equal distance as the crow flies.

[bugatti]

Here is KY divided into 3 equal pieces. This is going from the western most boarder to the eastern most boarder. Equal distance as the crow flies. [ATTACH=CONFIG]42557[/ATTACH]

I knew my measuring on my computer was not off that much. :lol2:

[BigVMan23]

In this "equal" division, Russellville would fall into the "central ky" side of the line. Got to move that line further east. Also a significant portion of Fayette Co would be considered eky. Got to move that line further east as well. Of course this is all just my opinion.

[woodsrider]

In this "equal" division, Russellville would fall into the "central ky" side of the line. Got to move that line further east. Also a significant portion of Fayette Co would be considered eky. Got to move that line further east as well. Of course this is all just my opinion.

Why you trying to short change EKY?

 

I'm not saying what I posted is law, it's more for discussion purposes. That said, just because we always assumed something doesn't make it true. If we are going to talk about KY regionally then the regions have to be fairly close to the same size don't they? Also keep in mind what I did was with straight lines. You could snake that around county boarders and I think it's pretty accurate.

[Colonels_Wear_Blue]

Its so subjective...but this is where I would 'draw the line" as it were. Got to the very north-eastern tip of Hancock county, and draw a line straight down. Anything west of that would be considered WKY to me. In this completely subjective "border" BG would not be considered western KY. Owensboro would. Russellville would. E'town and Leitchfield would not, but many people consider them to be wky. I never have. Here is a map with a red line I put on it showing what I roughly consider WKY.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]42556[/ATTACH]

 

I hadn't even gotten down to your post and I was already thinking almost exactly where your line is. I was going to say "draw a vertical line straight down the map at the eastern-most edge of the Western Coal Fields, and everything west of the line is Western Kentucky".

[BIG BLACK JACK]

I don't think you can just draw straight lines and call it WKY, CKY, and EKY. I think one would have to include/exclude certain counties instead of cutting them in half. Like Vman alluded to, Fayette isn't EKY, so that line would need to be moved over, and I like his idea of where he split WKY at as well.

[Colonels_Wear_Blue]

I learned 5 regions of Kentucky in Mrs. Torres' social studies class in the 4th grade. They were:

-Bluegrass Region

-Eastern Kentucky / Cumberland Plateau

-Western Coal Fields

-Pennyroyal Plateau / Mississippi Plateau

-Jackson Purchase

 

As I said above...just draw a vertical line straight down the map at the eastern-most edge of the Western Coal Fields region, and everything that falls to the west of the line is "Western Kentucky".

 

[BigVMan23]

Why you trying to short change EKY?

 

I'm not saying what I posted is law, it's more for discussion purposes. That said, just because we always assumed something doesn't make it true. If we are going to talk about KY regionally then the regions have to be fairly close to the same size don't they? Also keep in mind what I did was with straight lines. You could snake that around county boarders and I think it's pretty accurate.

 

Yeah, I just drew a straight line for the sake of ease, but really where I put the line only greatly affects Butler county, pretty much split it in half, and a little bit of Simpson Co. Make a few turns to include all of Butler and none of Simpson and you could pretty much have a border that included or excluded every county along the said border.